D-rank
by Phususaur
Summary: Bad story, probably will stay unfinished. Two OC's take the genin examination, and are gearing up to be put on a team that only takes D-rank missions. Team of extremely underpowered OCs, slow pace, on hiatus, despite just being posted.


_**-D-rank-**_

 _ **(-Episode 1-)**_

 _ **-The Genin Exam!-**_

* * *

So sorry about the hiatus-of-doom, guys, but vacation without internet really tends to leave one's schedule distorted – I still have a full 40 pages worth of text book notes to do while writing this, but I can't help it. Inspiration has struck me, specifically:

 _D-ranks are low class monotonous jobs assigned to fresh genin teams in order for teamwork and bonding, however, there are a whole lot more monotonous jobs than genin teams are willing to do. Who gets the spare chores? Who is the master of messes and the champion of cat-catching?_

 _Most genin teams move on to C-rank missions after about three months of training, despite what Iruka might prefer... Team 16, through no fault of their own, does something else entirely._

Welcome to D-rank, a story centered around 3 OC's in the rookie-nine's year and their jounin-sensei. Don't worry, none of them will be god-powered, or even stealing any spotlight from the canon characters – if anything makes them significantly interesting it'll be played for laughs.

Without further ado – or further arbitrary inflation of my word count – here goes nothing!

* * *

Emi tapped her pencil lightly against her cheek, and she began to wrack her brain for an answer to the question in front of her. She was no know-it-all, like Haruno-san, but she was no slouch either, and the fact that she couldn't answer it to the best of her abilities was starting to get on her nerves.

A quick glance around (innocent enough so that Iruka didn't notice with his weird psychic cheater-sense) showed that just about everyone was stuck on this question – thankfully the second last one, but there was only so much time left, and she had to fill in all of the answers completely, even if it was wrong.

 _Arggh! This question is so unfair!_ She thought, sinking her head. _I didn't even know there were this many, let alone more!_

Naruto seemed to be the most successful one, though with his skewed perceptions of reality he was likely writing down every mission with _only_ one S-class missing-nin in it.

And her eyes drifted towards her desk, and she read the test question again, thoroughly, as if staring at it harder would change the way it was worded, or erase the question from the test all together. The paper material looked dry and dead now, and the ink from her blue ball-point pen sunk into it's crevices, adding the paper's own asinine touch to her carefully worded calligraphy. It's words stared right back at her, the initial harmless simplicity in them taunting her.

" _Name at least different D-Ranked missions, in order from hardest to easiest."_

She moved her pen down towards the paper, sure she could answer it – she had to be able to answer it, D-Ranks were the easiest missions, right? Why wouldn't she know this? What _ninja_ didn't know this? Her pen stopped right at the beginning of the line, and a blue dot of ink appeared under the pen, but no words formed and no further movement was made, as if time stopped.

It was at this moment that she wracked her brain. What did Iruka say to do if she got stuck? It was something simple... oh, right!

" _Remember Emi, don't get hung up on one question. This last test you only answered eight questions on, even if there were questions further ahead that I know you know the answer to. Next time, just skip ahead to the next question if you're stuck. It'll be faster, and maybe one of the answers ahead will help you with the question you're stuck on. Remember your work, there's a reason we make you do it."_

Hadn't Iruka told her something earlier today, too, like _"Follow my advice, and you'll be in for a pleasant surprise."_ or something?

So she moved on from question 15 to question 16, and read that one instead.

" _Why do genin do D-Ranked missions? Answer in complete sentences and do not exceed the space provided you."_

She followed Iruka's other advice and scratched out all of the unnecessary information, leaving her with _"Why do genin do D-Ranked missions?"_ and a box with 5 answer lines in it. This question would prove to be much easier than the other one, and she saw that most of the rest of the class had moved on to this page as well, meaning Iruka gave some of them advice too. (there was also the chance that they had, you know, finished the question, but she wouldn't admit that to herself just yet)

She almost began writing down the first answer that came into her head, but it didn't sound right. Emi knew the standard fare upon completion of a D-Rank (five to ten dollars, depending on which currency you use), but the answer to the question couldn't just be "To make some pocket change" or "To do useless chores". That would be far too simple. Iruka's questions weren't like that at all.

So she wracked her brain again and remembered the lecture Iruka gave them on D-Ranks, a fairly short one if she remembered correctly.

" _When teams are fully formed most of the time they won't choose people who are immediately friends with each other, instead choosing to fit teams into balanced combat squads. Therefore, training for teamwork is a must, to work out kinks in these practical based teams. Personally, I would like to see you on a team with your friends, but that decision's not up to me." He sighed, and glanced at the Hokage's tower. "D-Ranks themselves are smaller missions that are given to teams to begin with, that allow for teamwork to be exercised in a safe environment. They're generally for pocket change."_

That sounded a bit better, and she almost wrote that one down too, but something stopped her. Hadn't Iruka given her the tip to help her answer the question before this one? Sure, it was useful knowledge, and probably an acceptable answer, but it didn't help her come up with any D-Ranked missions. All it told her was that D-Rank missions were safe, and required teamwork sometimes, which didn't give her a valid clue.

And yet, Iruka had still warned her... which means as right as this answer is it's not the answer he wants from _her_.

 _What does he want me to do?_

He told her about her test scores, and she hadn't found it odd at the time, but... she still got an 80. It wasn't like he was disappointed in that grade or anything, so why the advice? Iruka's words echoed in her head back and forth, picked apart for any clues as to why he told her what she did. _Was he cluing her in to anything? Telling her something?_ A ninja is all about subtly, and Iruka certainly wants her to pass into the Jounin track, so... Maybe this question was a test all on it's own...

She went over his advice in her head again, picking through every word with a fine toothed comb. This would require careful thinking on her part. _The connection was just there, out of reach, but if she stretched just a little..._

" _Remember your work, there's a reason we make you do it."_

That was it! It didn't seem out of place, but the more and more she thought about it, the more and more she realized that it was a hint. There's no way it _couldn't_ have been deliberate, at least not in that particular lecture. Emi sat up straighter and began to search for something else significant about it.

Her work was nothing special, she got average grades just for handing homework in on time. She always did her homework because her parents told her to, but she thought it was fairly useless – or at least up until 45 minutes ago. Almost all of the questions on this test previously were reviewed in homework and in classwork, classwork that she wouldn't have otherwise payed attention to had Iruka not warned her.

His reminder, _"Remember your work."_. Was it about that?

No... to simple and yet a bit too complex... but...

" _There's a reason we make you do it"_. All of her homework was there for a reason, it helped her and her grades as a whole, and her ninja career, no matter how boring. Most people thought D-Ranks were boring missions to make pocket change, the smarter ones thought D-Rank missions were done to help teamwork progress and develop, making stronger ninja.

But what if that wasn't it? What if it was something so simple and yet so complex that people overlook it? What if D-Ranks were like homework?

And her brain stumbled across a thought foreign and crazy to her, so distant and unthinkable that it hurt to even try to understand it. A thought that both hurt and relieved her at the same time, to her chagrin. What if... what if they did D-Rank missions not for pocket change, not for teamwork, but because, crazily enough, D-Rank missions were, " _believe-it"_ or not, _necessary_?

It made a horridly clear kind of sense to her, and she was sure she found the answer this time. It couldn't be anything else, because _every_ single one of Iruka's questions were trick questions like this one.

She took another quick glance around the room, her face still partially in shock from the revelation, until her eyes settled upon Iruka at the front of the classroom. He was smiling benignly, as if the students graduating were his greatest accomplishment. (given the number of clan kids in the class, that probably wasn't to far off.) But that wasn't what unsettled her about Iruka – for as her gaze met his, he dropped his benign smile in favor of a wicked smirk, as if he knew _exactly_ what she had just deduced, and had planned it all along.

It quite reminded her of Naruto after he pulled one of his more successful stunts, scarily enough. (not Naruto's stunts, no, she was quite fond of those, she was scared of the _implications_ of a _teacher_ smiling like that.)

Iruka flashed her two thumbs up, and then gestured as if to tell Emi to start writing, and then pointed at the clock. With one last look, Iruka made a shushing gesture, but underneath that he had that same scary prankster grin on his face, like he had just shared some sort of deep dark embarrassing secret of the ninja village with her.

And so, she turned to the paper and began writing.

" _D-Rank missions are preformed by genin because genin are the perfect cheap and large labor pool to preform the necessary upkeep that the village needs to keep running; in short, D-Ranks exist because they are necessary to Konoha's infrastructure. Painful, yes, but useful all the same."_

It was a short answer, but she was proud of having figured it out anyway – there were many right answers to these questions, but there was only one _best_ answer. She returned to question 15 to fill in her answers there, and sure enough she found that they were relatively easy. Now all she had to do was ask herself _"what does a village need that can be provided by genin"_ and write down what she thought.

And so she filled out:

" _Repairing buildings,_

 _Repairing streets,_

 _Preforming Deliveries just outside the wall of Konoha,_

 _Preforming Deliveries inside of Konoha,_

 _Picking up litter in the streams and ponds,_

 _Painting walls and buildings,_

 _Picking up litter in the streets,_

 _Catching stray animals,_

 _Trimming plants and weeds,_

 _and Painting lower structures like fences."_

It was almost easy. Almost.

She sighed loudly, slammed her pencil down (a habit which irritated everyone else who _wasn't_ done already) and scanned the room to see who else was finished. It was time for her to do the next test, the physical portion of the genin exam, but there was still ten minutes left on the clock for those who needed it.

The Nara boy was sleeping again, and so was Naruto (who must have finished his test early by sheer habit of bullshitting his way through all the answers). The Inuzuka, Hyuga and Aburame were all sitting stiffly in a row, but Kiba was only sitting stiffly because he was trying to break his record for balancing Akamaru on his head.

All in all, it was a normal day at the academy (minus the genin exam, of course).

She let out another sigh, and decided that for once Naruto's idea of sleeping wasn't half bad.

* * *

Daisuke was by no means a bad student, not at all. If it weren't for Sasuke Uchiha, he'd be rookie of the year – not that the gap between them was _small_ whatsoever, there was no doubt that Sasuke was the best of their class, and he got there out of his own effort – considering what he had to go through he deserved it.

Daisuke had no envy for him, in fact, he was kind of proud that the kid could go somewhere, move on after the massacre. As for himself, Daisuke was content in the fact that people couldn't ignore him. He may be average, but at the very least he was average-smart. It opened up a wealth of new job opportunities, while not drawing too much attention to himself.

Except that was all about to be put on hold thanks to this _stupid_ question.

Ten D-Ranks? Please? He could have very well studied them, it wasn't that hard to just march into the Hokage's office and ask the chunin on duty for a list of D-Ranks, but he was above that. Truth be told, he figured he'd never have to do D-Ranks, he wasn't aiming for the Jounin Track, just to get into the Genin Corps with a high enough score to be roped into an apprenticeship – much like the previous failed students of Kakashi Hatake. (The egotistical bastard always asks for the team with the best of the best, only to fail them – while it was probably better for their careers in the long run, it irked Daisuke the wrong way to think that his life as a ninja could be ended by somebody who was to lazy to pass his team)

And so, he stared on at the question that was beginning to really get on his nerves. He'd picked and chosen which questions he'd answer correctly and which to mess up just to make sure he stayed in the 99th percentile and no higher, but this threw him off track. Had he not skimmed the test he would have realized the question wasn't as easy as it seemed, but now his answers were in pen and it would seems suspicious to come back and "realize" his mistake halfway through the test.

So answering it was, but where to start? And why did he even need to know this, anyway?

D-Ranks weren't that important, at least not to him. He hoped to become a higher up, perhaps head of something like T&I, ANBU or the Hospital, depending on his mood, so spare change wasn't all that interesting to him. So why write a question about them if they weren't important? Or... were they?

Genin doing D-Ranks weren't hard to find, they were everywhere. Sure, there were only one or two _important_ teams a year, but a third of graduating students were sent on the Jounin Track – out of four classes of thirty-six people. Canon fodder indeed. The wealth of laborers made work cheap that would otherwise be too useless to pay for in a Ninja village – it was part of what made being a shinobi of the leaf so enticing, the fact that you could live your entire life and not see the front lines if you chose your career correctly.

It was also what made the leaf village so enticing for civilians to live in too. Almost 30,000 civilians resided in the leaf village, and compared to the meager 5000 shinobi during wartime the hidden leaf village was more village than hidden. All thanks to D-ranks making cheap, backbreaking child labor easy.

Wait... _all thanks to D-Ranks?_

His mind stuttered a little bit on that one. He must have _known_ they were important already, he just never realized it... but it still doesn't answer the question. Why would a trained Ninja volunteer to do the labor themselves, when civilians could very well do them?

It wouldn't make sense, unless D-ranks were jobs that _only_ ninja can do, but not specific enough to warrant anybody trained significantly. Which means... what?

If D-Ranks are what keep the civilians here, then D-Ranks must all have to do with infrastructure support and maintenance – it shouldn't be too hard to puzzle those out. Support and maintenance of what? Maintenance and upkeep is hard when the thing you're fixing is top secret, so D-ranks are simply easy missions that concern the village as a whole.

 _Ok, then_. That's that. _That felt anticlimactic..._

Daisuke set to writing on his paper as many D-Rank missions as he could dream up, which was a lot, and then numbered them 1-40 in order increasing from easiest to most difficult.

 _Take that, you stupid question_. Now that he had his career on track, he used his answers from question 15 to write an answer to question 16... _wait..._

 _Why_ do genin do D-ranks anyway? It can't be _just_ for teamwork (like he had believed that for a second, will of fire or not, ninja are part of a military dictatorship, not a daycare center)

He thought for a second (an interesting experience for anyone who knew Daisuke, because he didn't like to look like he was thinking). _Teamwork, while a reasonable explanation, doesn't make sense... but there are more practical things D-ranks can be useful for, like social experience and experience with delivery processes – or just simply to familiarize yourself with village infrastructure. Following that point of view, I can account for even Jounin doing D-ranks on occasion..._

His answer was short, and precise. By looking at it, the only evidence it required any more than a glancing thought was the blot of ink from Daisuke's felt tipped pen on the page.

He sighed loudly (coincidentally at the same time Emi did, but nobody really noticed nor cared – it's not like they were any of the important students) then leaned back against his desk chair, until he noticed it was actually _really_ uncomfortable with all of the stone edges digging against his back and his tail bone on the edge of the seat. He almost resolved to do what the Hyuga girl was doing and sat up, until he realized he had about 20 minutes of indoor class time left until he never had to sit in a desk again.

Daisuke couldn't help but notice out of the corner of his eye that Naruto was drooling on his paper in his sleep, and he reached over to prod him. His hand hesitated for a second, before he thought better of it. It's not that he was always this uncertain, but at this point was it really worth it to do anything but sit and wait? All of the other options were too troublesome, and getting Naruto to finish his test was probably going to be more trouble than it was worth.

 _I can see why the Nara boy says that word so much. It's a fun word. Troublesome. Trou-ble-some. Troublesometroublesometroublesometroublesome._

 _I wonder why the Nara are so lazy, anyway, honestly. Do laziness and intelligence go hand in hand all the time? I remember reading that the Nine-Tails was relatively lazy and peaceful until it attacked Konoha, maybe it's laziness was a sign of ridiculous intelligence too. I wonder when the Nine-Tails will reform again. Hopefully not any time soon. Or anywhere near Konoha, my father had a hard enough time fixing the melted shingles on our roof the first time._

 _Speaking of shingles, I mean, what's up with that? I thought chicken pox was just once and done. I'll have to make sure I keep up to date on vaccine._

 _Whoa, I've been thinking for a while. Maybe I should slow down or... oh! Look! That's a really cool bird out there, is that a messenger eagle? It looks like it's flying in the pattern for "anticipated internal conflict". Whatever, I might as well just keep my eyes open or something..._

Daisuke lost his train of thought, and figured anything he was thinking about was probably not that important. He shook his head and looked at the clock, confident that he had goofed off for at least fifteen minutes.

There was still twenty minutes left, which was notable for being very close to the twenty-two minutes left the last time he checked the clock, exactly two minutes ago.

 _This will be a long, long day._

* * *

Naruto sneezed. He didn't know why, of course, but it was enough to get Iruka to give him the death glare anyway. _Jerk_. He looked back down on his paper, scratching his cheek.

 _Name ten D-Ranks? Easy! Umm.. rescuing princesses! Yeah! And... uh... Capturing a missing-nin! That too. Erm... what else? Oh, painting the Hokage Monument!_ (He was proud of that last one. He had even learned the word fluorescent the other day when that nice shop-keeper complimented his outfit!)

Speaking of orange... he should really buy some orange bubble gum or something...

* * *

"All right class! The time for the written test has ended, Mizuki-sensei will escort you outside for the practical test while I prepare the practice room for the ninjutsu test and level assessment. Last week a _certain someone_ burnt through the containment seals with a particularly nasty Katon jutsu. Needless to say, if you have any destructive jutsu we can take the class outside." Iruka sighed and took his leave to the room directly across the hall, and Mizuki stood in the middle of the room at attention.

"Alright children, let's make this quick. Tsubaki is expecting me back home early today, something about 'spending too much time on those brats'." He smirked for a second, then clapped his hands together and animated himself again. "Alright, line up in alphabetical order by surname. Naruto, you're between Sasuke and Ino, I'm not to sure Haruno-san is enjoying your company."

Naruto moved back a few places in line, and started bouncing up and down uncontrollably.

Mizuki-sensei led the class outside to the southernmost academy training field, and stopped just short of a blooming maple tree. The grass made an audible crunching noise, hardy from the generations of students that had walked on it and the nearing summer air drying it out. He raised his right hand to silence the chattering students, and then gestured towards his left where 10 targets were standing.

"This is the throwing accuracy test." He stated simply "You must hit the target at least 5 times, and you have ten rubber kunai. Each target will be marked when you hit it, like a bruise. After this, we will proceed to the Practical Mission Examination, and subsequently the Ninjutsu assessment."

There wasn't much argument, it was easier than some of their class assignments.

Emi stood up to plate second, and readied a kunai. Mizuki-sensei was standing downrange, by the target, in order to record the hits better and have a better view of her stance. She drew her arm up in the ready position, shifted her stance with precision, drew her arm back, and... fired.

"Gah!" Mizuki screamed "You little -! How the hell did you get it stuck in my foot?! It was _rubber!_ " He grasped his foot and rather forcefully tugged the rubber kunai out of it's lodged position. Mizuki then limped his way to her and gave it back. "Here, you get a freebie, now try again, and _don't_ stab my foot this time."

"Hai, Mizuki-sensei!" She said, standing straighter. She drew her arm back, and fired towards the target again. The kunai seemed to flow through the air in slow motion, as it headed downrange.

"Shit!" Mizuki screamed, again. This time, the kunai almost grazed his... _jewels_ if he hadn't jumped. "H-how? What? Why? Did you do that on purpose?"

Emi shook her head in denial and pouted, and took her rubber kunai back from a grumpier Mizuki. The instructor sighed, and looked wistfully over to the building that Iruka was residing in. Did Iruka know how frustrating these kids were? Instead of chancing it and ending up in the hospital because of Emi, he just stood behind the target sign and took advantage of her atrociously bad aiming skills.

She got an 8 out of 10.

Daisuke stared at the girl, with morbid curiosity, and wondered for the millionth time just who Emi _was_ exactly. He had a vague recollection of having crush on the girl two years ago, but the feelings faded with time, one emotion still remained, the desire to see what the hell that girl was all about. She'd say something that would make you think that she was intelligent or self-aware and empathetic, and then she'd kick a puppy or say something stupid and the entire illusion washes away leaving you wondering just what...?

It was like she crossed the empathetic event horizon and realized she was not different than everybody else, then picked and chose random personality traits for shits and giggles.

So his affection didn't last to long past acknowledging she wasn't difficult to look at. But interest still remained, or at least a passive curiosity, until it all came to the surface and she did something so stupid that it hurt and yet it still worked out for her in the end. Like she realized she wasn't the main character of her own little story, but decided to be amusing and reality-bending all the same, _just because she felt like it_.

Daisuke spent a good ten minutes coming up with more metaphors for her ridiculous behavior, until it was finally time for him to be called up.

"Ok Daisuke, you're one of the last ones up, take the kunai pouch." Mizuki said, sitting down and nursing the wound on his foot.

 _Ok, so I got (preferably) a 12 out of 16 on the test, which will put me above Emi, Ino and Chouji but below Sakura and Sasuke. I need to get an 8 out of ten on this test to position me just above Sakura in the grading scale, assuming I pass the other two tests with a perfect score._ He mentally swore to himself, _that doesn't give me a large margin for error here, but when have I ever preformed in a truly low risk scenario?_

 _Don't worry, it's just your entire ninja career on the table here, Daisuke. I'm sure it'll be fine if you fail. Second place behind Sasuke will actually pull me out of the running for the three passable teams this year, but it gives me a good reputation._

He shifted his stance, closed his eyes, and gripped the rubber kunai tightly, pulling it from the holster. His right leg went back, and his right eye went closed, and his right arm came up. His fingers slipped along the end of the kunai quickly, but at a measured pace, then caught at the end of the handle at the small pommel of the knife. His arm swung forward, and the knife dragged behind his hand, and when his arm reached a 135 degree angle relative to his vertical body he let go, the knife shot forward straight from his hand, the rotational motion ceasing and turning into forward kinetic energy with the help of the knife throwing stance.

In short, knife met bullseye.

He let out a breath he knew perfectly well that he had been holding, blinked open his right eye, set his feed equidistant apart and drew another kunai with practiced skill. He knew exactly how far away the target was now, the hard part was over.

 _Stance set – shift – arm bend – finger slip – flick wrists. Toss new kunai to right hand from holster strapped on the left. Stance set._

The clunk of the rubber kunai hitting the bullseye could be heard, but a new kunai was already in his hand and then in the air and you couldn't see it. It was a skill all ninja practiced and knew, it was so quick it was reflex. No one blinked when you scored a bullseye, no one even thought about how difficult it was to hold a kunai and throw it because even though it was difficult, that was how skills worked.

Skills weren't growth, they were a regression of difficulty – humans had the amazing ability to store and remember information that they no longer truly knew, called muscle memory, and even the dumbest of people could learn how to handle a knife with precision. In truth, Daisuke didn't have to remember the formula for throwing a kunai correctly, he could do it easily as any other ninja, but it gave him an idea to stand on.

 _See this, this formula is incredibly difficult and hard to master. I won't ever forget that two years ago I would have stabbed myself to death if I didn't master this completely._ And a part of him had hope, as the last kunai struck the target, that if even an idiot like Naruto could learn how to hit a target 8 out of 10 times, anyone could truly accomplish anything.

* * *

 _Genin Exams – Conclusion_

Emi stood stoically (or as stoically as she could get) in line for the obstacle course, as Mizuki droned on about the nature of the test. She was paying attention, or at least acting like she was paying attention, but another part of her mind wandered elsewhere – namely, to Naruto. It was the fourth time he had made a declaration to become Hokage that day, and yet he was scoring the lowest on every test. You couldn't get that bad on purpose, but he still kept trying.

She respected that, at least somewhat. Naruto would probably never be on Sasuke's level, not without some real training, but at the very least being dead last will put him on Sasuke's team. The rookie of the year is bound to have a good enough jounin to beat the dead last into shape, and polish Sasuke's own rough edges. (Namely that emo frown of his, Emi just couldn't dig that. Sasuke was too much of a pretty boy for her, but he wasn't to hard on the eyes either – then again, the boys in this year's class were all pretty cool, with the exception of Shino.)

She shivered for a minute at the thought of bugs, not that she had anything against them, but... _bugs_. There was a noise outside of her thoughts that was directed at her, but she was too busy with her thoughts to care at all.

"Emi!" Mizuki said sternly.

"Huh! What?" She looked around, at the rest of the line behind her. "Is it my turn?"

"Yes, brat. Go do your best, I definitely don't want to put up with another year from you." He gibed, before giving his timer a look. "You have five minutes to retrieve the 'scroll' from it's case at the end of the course, and come back. Points are taken off every time you get hit by one of my rubber kunai. _Believe me,_ I won't make it easy on you."

Emi shook off her momentary confusion, just in time to hear Mizuki say "Go!".

" _Oh shit!"_ she thought, stumbling over her legs and into the obstacle course. _That's the last time I think about boys during a test of some sort._ She ran out of sight of the line into the obstacle course, and stopped. Only the proctors would be able to see her now, and their curiosity was limited to how long it was until the end of this shift.

 _Alright, what's the game plan?_ Her father had told her that if she was ever in a situation in which she had to follow a route, there was a specific mindset to get into. The human brain

is _built_ for survival situations (and fucking, but that took a back seat to kicking the shit out of people) and so obstacle courses came naturally. All you needed to do was... _focus!_

Her eyes hardened, and to ninja the sudden change in demeanor would resemble a dojutsu if it her eyes actually transformed. Emi's brows were creased and her eyes darted around, interpreting obstacles. Her hands rose up to form the ram handseal, and she gathered chakra into her feet. She could almost start...

She jumped forward leaving a crater in the ground, and sped into the rest obstacle course, ducking and dodging where ducking and dodging was required. For a ninja, this skill was dramatically underrated compared to ninjutsu and taijutsu skills, mostly because you only need instincts to know how to dodge correctly. For Emi, though, this skill was the most impressive skill a ninja can have, just short of blowing _everything_ up or conjuring a meteor shower or something. _Wasn't there a guy who could do that ages ag- shit! Pay attention!_

 _Dodge, swipe, dodge. Dodge, duck, dive, jump... oh shit, roll!_

It was an art, true art, an explosion of physical activity, sugar being pumped around the capillaries near her muscles, which diffused through the cell membrane due to it's higher concentration. Cells made energy in their own organelles, energy was used to contract and tighten the muscles, and the muscles tugged on the bones to produce movement.

Every ninja – hell, every person can run, but not many people knew the process behind it. The perfect synchronism behind every inch of motion, the result of the symbiosis of millions of identical cells, and millions of independent bacteria. That was Emi's humbling blow, the thing that kept her down to earth.

Or, at least, as down to earth as she could get. The eccentricity of ninja remained, and even prospered – sanity didn't seem to be nearly as valued in a ninja career path as it was elsewhere. She had heard some people call the folks over at T&I ninja-paper-pushers, which, elusively enough, was not an oxymoron. The nurses at Konoha's hospital, weren't nurses, they were _ninja-nurses._

She tripped on a foam spike jutting out from the ground, and resolved to _not go on random tangential thought._ As she jumped up, she very narrowly missed several rubber kunai, courtesy of Mizuki-sensei.And so, she began to seriously move forward.

Ground underneath her feet was springy, gym tile, installed a few years ago thanks to the academy's peace-time budget. Whatever it was made of, Emi was thankful of it – the obstacle course didn't have a forest section, and that ground was some of the easiest stuff she had ever run on. She only had a few more minutes left on the physical portion of the exam, and yet she hadn't- _kunai!_ \- yet gotten tired, although the exercise itself was much more rigorous than the standard academy fare. All she had to do after- _kunai!_ -finishing the test, was the jutsu portion of the exam.

Despite knowing this, anxiety gripped her as she reached the end of the course. Something about the examination had been strange. Like the test had been more than one test.

Things were looking up – at least, for then.

* * *

That's all I've got, folks!

If you like it, leave a review, if you don't, leave a review, if you don't care at all, leave a review. If you're not comfortable with leaving reviews or you don't want to inflate the publicity of the best story ever, you can PM me using the system. Did you guys know that my word processor tried to auto-correct Mizuki-sensei to "Promiscuousness" for some bizarre reason.

My other fics are probably deadfics. I'm sad, but I've moved on to other things. This is probably a deadfic too, but it's something I might update later.

Sincerely,

The dinosaur to end all dinosaurs,

Phususaurus


End file.
